Globes trial zeroes in on key meetings

The trial over the broadcast rights to the Golden Globes on Wednesday focused on what Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. board members remembered -- or didn't -- about crucial meetings at which rights to the kudocast and the org's contract with Dick Clark Prods. were discussed. The HFPA sued DCP in 2010 after its longtime producer landed a new contract with NBC without the press org's approval. Attorneys for HFPA have been trying to show that there is a history of the org giving permission to DCP to enter into new deals with the Peacock network. Often cited is a July, 2001 membership meeting. But the minutes of that gathering make no mention of any discussion of a proposed $100 million pact with NBC that would have given the network rights to the show over 10 years. Lorenzo Soria, an HFPA member and former board member and prexy, said he was "reasonably certain" that a vote took place in which the org gave its signoff to the deal. He said it was a "logical deduction according to history and tradition" that members would have weighed in on such an important contract. He also said that the transcript of a meeting the following year, in which he reminded then-DCP prexy Francis LaMaina that members had voted on the NBC deal, refreshed his memory. But attorneys for DCP challenge whether such approval ever took place, citing a dearth of written evidence that it occurred. They also have attempted to show inconsistencies between sworn statements that Soria made and in what he says on the witness stand, typically over how certain he is in his memory of events. HFPA's suit against DCP centers on the interpretation of an "extensions" clause in a 1993 amendment to an earlier agreement. DCP claims that it gives them the rights to produce the Globes as long as it could secure a deal with NBC. Among other things, the HFPA's attorneys have been trying to show that LaMaina failed to mention the existence of the clause when he appeared before a membership meeting in September 1993. But LaMaina testified that he left copies of the amendment with members, and that it was up to them to take a look at it. Contact Ted Johnson at ted.johnson@variety.com